By Hugh Holland
We are seeing more and more weird weather. September 5 was a beautiful day at 26°. On September 6, the temp dropped to a cold and rainy 15°. September 7 brought 5° and light snow to North Bay, and by September 12, we had a 27° heatwave. We are all in this together. According to the Weather Channel, the first system originated from a hurricane in the South China Sea and then a hurricane in Louisiana.
The weather has always been changing, but too many people now seem oblivious to the fact that emission-driven extreme weather events are much more frequent and severe than ever before. 2023 and 2024 had the highest air and ocean temperatures ever recorded, with melting glaciers and sea ice, rising sea levels bringing more damaging coastal storm surges, more violent ocean-based windstorms, and more droughts and wildfires in Canada and around the world. Including the Jasper wildfire, the Calgary hailstorm, and the flooding in Toronto and Montreal, 2024 is on track to be the costliest year on record for climate disasters in Canada, that are now routinely exceeding $5 billion per year, destroying housing stock, and affecting mental health.
“All of humanity could share a prosperous, equitable future but the space for development is rapidly shrinking under pressure from a wealthy minority of ultra-consumers,” says a new groundbreaking study. “Consumerism and the climate crisis threaten an equitable future for humanity,” says a report by the Earth Commission, an international team of leading scientists.
“Growing environmental degradation and climate instability have pushed the Earth beyond a series of safe planetary boundaries,” say the authors from the Earth Commission, “But it still remains possible to carve out a “safe and just space” that would enable everyone to thrive.”
That outcome would depend on a transformation of global politics, economics and society to ensure a fairer distribution of resources, a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels, and the widespread adoption of low-carbon, sustainable technologies and lifestyles, it said.
In his latest television series, director Thomas Vinterberg imagines his home country of Denmark shutting down due to rising sea waters, with the entire population forced to flee.
“Families Like Ours,” which premiered at the Venice, Italy Film Festival, is set in the near future. The Netherlands has already vanished beneath the waves and Danish leaders are determined to save the lives of their own people, ordering a mass evacuation. Families are split and friends become separated as some six million Danes scramble to obtain documents to relocate to European countries with higher ground. His team consulted climate scientists and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs as they tried to portray as realistically as possible what could happen in his country.
“This show is primarily about human beings, and how we cope with crisis,” said Vinterberg. This feeling of being on the Titanic, with the water pouring into the second and third-class cabins, but in first class, we just keep on eating and playing violins. We don’t want to hear it.” “We don’t want to change, we’re unable to change,” he said.
The same thing is happening here in Canada. Even though rapidly advancing Climate Change is increasingly recognized as the biggest existential threat to Canada and the world, too many of those who have yet to be personally affected chose to ignore the fact that droughts, wildfires, tornadoes, storm surges etc. inflate the cost of food, and energy, and is driving up the cost of building and repairing climate-robust houses, high-rise buildings, and infrastructure.
Add to that the effects of a pandemic, conflicts, and wars and we should understand that governments everywhere have been overwhelmed with an unprecedented list of challenges for which there are no magic or easy solutions.
Lest we forget, in 2016, the federal government’s bipartisan Advisory Panel on Economic Growth recommended that to attain a more independent and sustainable economy, Canada should pursue a strategy to reach a population of 100 million people by 2100, mainly through a modest increase in annual immigration. Then COVID, and Russia’s attack on Ukraine disrupted that planning with COVID-related deaths, early retirements from the medical field, and 200,000 unexpected Ukrainian refugees arriving in Canada. Immigration and housing got out of balance, but corrections are now underway at the federal, provincial and municipal levels. All three have large staffs involved.
However, things are improving, and the Bank of Canada has already cut the inflation-fighting prime rate three times this year. For 2025, the International Monetary Fund is projecting Canada will be the fastest growing economy among the G7 economies. The U.S. economy will rank second at 1.9 per cent and the U.K. third at 1.5 per cent growth next year.
An orderly transition over the next twenty years to a future with a sustainable environment will benefit everyone. Considering Canada’s three biggest sources of heat-trapping emissions are #1. oil and gas production at 26%, #2. Transportation at 25%, and #3. Building heating at 13%, what are the three most important things we can do as responsible citizens to ensure a healthy and sustainable climate and economic future for Canada?
#1. Making your next vehicle a zero-emission and energy-efficient electric vehicle “doubles your impact” by reducing emissions from both producing gasoline and from burning it. The initial price of an EV is still a bit higher, but when energy and maintenance costs are considered, EVs provide substantial net savings compared to gasoline and even hybrid vehicles.
#2. When our home heating system needs to be replaced, we can choose a dual-fuel heat pump with gas back-up if you are concerned about the very few days below -30° C.
#3. Understand that we are not alone. Today’s unusual but improving economic situation is also being experienced by peer countries as well as Canada. Understand that sustainable economics are now almost entirely dependent on having a sustainable environment. Respect experts in these complicated fields. Take advantage of the rare opportunity to engage Mark Carney, a loyal Canadian whose international experience and credentials are unmatched in those key areas. And vote for the party with the most credible combination of economic and environmental policies for all of us.
Hugh Holland
Hugh Holland is a retired engineering and manufacturing executive now living in Huntsville, Ontario.
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Under Doug Ford Ontario is rapidly going backwards.
Unlike the rest of the world.
Search and watch the video “US solar industry explodes past pivot point with incredible exponential growth”
Previous to Ford Ontario was 96% non-fossil fuel power for decades.
Something to be proud of.
It would have only taken a small amount of renewables and storage to get to 100%.
We were well on the way with 750 green energy projects already under construction.
Until Doug Ford nuked it all and wasted 100s of millions of taxpayer dollars doing it, saying Ontario didn’t need the power.
Since Doug Ford’ meddling, Ontario is now down to 90% non-fossil fuel power and dropping.
Down to 75% by 2030 likely.
Ontario is getting less green unlike the rest of the world.
Something to be embarrassed about.
Among Ford’s many other embarrassing mistakes, scandals and flip flops.
While in the rest of the world “Giant batteries that ensure stable power supply by offsetting intermittent renewable supplies are becoming cheap enough to make developers abandon scores of projects for gas-fired generation world-wide.”
Why would anyone build gas power plants in Ontario when the feds require them to be shut down by 2035?
Ford has that covered
“…even if the feds shut them down, the Ford government is promising they’ll continue to get paid.” Typical. Another waste of taxpayer dollars.
Ontario is actually putting in 2.5 GW of battery storage.
Ford is likely not aware or he would cancel those as well.
Search “This community just threw a wrench into Doug Ford’s plans for new gas plants”
Cities are using legislation Ford created to stop his dirty, unneeded, extremely expensive gas plants.
That’s funny.
The new EV and battery plant power demand in Ontario will be met with dirty natural gas according to Ford.
“Multiple studies have shown that the province can meet its power needs without building new gas plants, and that solar and wind power, as well as programs that reduce electricity demand through incentives and efficiency, are much cheaper in the long run.”
Search “Polluting gas will provide 25% of Ontario’s electricity in 2030 – up from 4%”
Only recently has Ford flip flopped on yet another mistake and is looking to add solar and wind again that was cancelled in 2018.
Typical.
Well said Mr. Holland!!
We all need to share these concerns, even if it it is uncomfortable.
And we need to stop the mindset of “I don’t like who I am voting for but I can’t stand the guy that is in power”.
We need to vote who we really want!!
Understand what a party or candidate’s
Platform is. And IF they won’t tell you, move to the next candidate…
Thanks again Mr. Holland.
Blaming CC on a small group of consumers is IMHO wrong. The recent increase in carbon seems to correlate with rising prosperity in Asia. A 100 million more car users as a lowball estimate. Maybe half a billion, a lot anyway.
True we are all contributing either through direct burning or use of goods and services resulting from industrial emission.
The Dark Lord and Pullover are not going to help if they get elected, most Canadians will
Be worse off without Carbon Rebate.
Here in BC they have a tax of their own but traffic in Vancouver has got really bad. EVs are the better way for sure.
Great article by Mr. Holland and excellent commentaries by Dale Hajas and Bob Braan. I too, pray and hope that there will be enough sensible folks going to the voting booths to avert the disasters which electing Mr. Pilivre would bring about.
Think the carbon tax is expensive?
It’s rebated.
The massive cost of climate change is not.
The carbon tax rebate is up to $2,160/year for a rural family of 4 in Alberta.
‘Fuel” for an EV is actually FREE courtesy of the gas burners.
EV owners don’t pay the carbon tax on gas but still get the big rebate.
The rebate pays the entire yearly cost of “fuel” for an EV, road tax if any, and helps to pay off the EV.
On top of purchase rebates available in many provinces.
At least $5K total.
Despite what Poilievre says the carbon tax is a tiny part of inflation according to the BOC.
Search “There’s now a Bank of Canada number for carbon tax’s impact on inflation. It’s small”
“That number: 0.15 percentage points of the inflation increase can be attributed to the carbon tax.”
Almost nothing.
While climate change is hugely expensive and responsible for a huge part of inflation.
Search “From chocolate to home insurance, climate change is making life more expensive.”
Search “Explosive Growth – How Green Energy Fuels the Economic Boom”
“renewable energies made up ten percent of growth in global Gross Domestic Product – equivalent to 320 billion dollars.”
“Indeed, the growth rates for renewable energies last year were impressive: 80 percent of newly built electricity capacities worldwide were attributable to wind, solar, water, and biomass.”
“since 2021, more workers have been employed in the “clean” energy sector than in the fossil sector.”
That’s the clean, green economic future.
Another excellent – albeit concerning – column, Hugh. While the content should terrify us, there are solutions if we are willing to take them. The next election will tell us if our ‘tired of this PM’ will trump our own best interests in this dire climate scenario.
A Conservative federal government is about the worst thing that could happen to us now. A price on carbon pollution remains the most effective way to reduce climate-changing emissions and yet…..he who looks poised to become our next PM chants ‘Axe the Tax.’